If you’re looking for a water-resistant, dust-resistant, high-end phone for your small business, the LG V30 is one of the most recent. It’s one of the lightest, thinnest smartphones with Android Oreo on the market.

LG V30 Specs

Key LG V30 Specs

The screen gives you 2880 x 1440 pixels, and it almost feels as if you’re holding 6 inches of high-res screen and nothing else. It has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of memory which you can expand with a microSD card to 2 terabytes. Depending on the carrier, there’s the V30+ if 64 GB isn’t enough for you. (See the Cons section.)

According to LG, more colors (up to 211 percent more) will be rendered when shooting pictures or video. (I’m unsure if my human eye will notice, but at least we know the 16-megapixel camera on the V30 is a step up from what the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus offers at 12 megapixels.) The LG V30 camera setting has a wide-angle option which I didn’t try. Video mode has some bonus features like Cine Effect and Point Zoom, which are marketed to the 78 percent of Millennials who use phones for video creation.

LG V30 Pros

Starting with its fully-charged 3,300 mAh battery, in three hours of very heavy uninterrupted use, the LG V30 fell to 62 percent battery capacity. This is a positive because I expected a slightly bigger drop during this stress test. By very heavy, I mean I focused on a known battery-hog — specifically Snapchat. When Snapchat wasn’t in active use, I still kept it open alongside normal apps. I switched back and forth between normal apps and Snapchat. Because the V30 is such a thin phone, I wanted to see if Snapchat would make the V30 uncomfortably hot. It didn’t get hot at all, a nice surprise!

The LG V30 has IP68 certification which means it’s dust-resistant and water-resistant in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. You could safely rinse this phone several times a week to keep it looking new. It is MIL-STD 810G compliant which means it successfully passed 14 military-grade stress tests. It has a headphone jack placed on top, where I think a jack belongs. Because it was introduced in late 2017, it’s easy to find numerous LG V30 message boards filled with tips, fixes and tweaks written by individual owners. The same is true for recent reviews of it on YouTube.

A quick charger using USB Type C is provided and offers the speed you’d expect. If you want wireless charging, that’s sold separately but at least you have it as an option, another positive you’d expect from a 2018 flagship.

LG V30 Cons

The battery, though good, is non-removable. The front-facing camera (or “selfie camera” as some like to call it) is basic at just 5 megapixels.

If you simply want the basic V30, please be sure you don’t get distracted by variants. But one variant worth considering is the V30+ which has double the storage (128 GB) but the same amount of RAM. The V30+ is surprisingly only $82 more than the $830 unlocked version (which means a handset isn’t locked to one carrier), but it’s only for Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular.

When it comes to buying smartphones, “the fewer variants, the better.” Too many variants can lead to confusion. Followers of LG Mobile who predicted there’d be only one V30 variant were wrong. There are now a few variants of the V30 out there like the V30S ThinQ. When you see any LG product with ThinQ in its name, it means artificial intelligence is somehow inside, whether it’s a smartphone, smart appliance, etc. Do most small businesses truly need AI in a phone? Hard to say, but in 2018, I’d guess no unless experimenting floats your boat. Specifically for the V30S ThinQ, ThinQ means camera features with EyeEm (an image-recognizing AI developed in Germany) woven in, as well as voice commands with an AI layer.

Conclusion

I see the LG V30 as a solid, high-quality choice for most businesses.

With an 18:9 aspect ratio, however, images (in portrait mode) will be taller than what’s produced on other phones. This could sometimes cause an image that’s shot on a V30 to look off-kilter if opened on another phone. To remedy this, just be mindful of edge extremes during your shooting and any post-production (e.g. Instagram or Snapchat stickers). If your business does a lot of stickers on Instgram or Snapchat, then I’d throw in this minor point of caution. Otherwise, I recommend the V30 for business. If your business is near a lot of water or dust, consider this phone.

If you’re bristling at the price, be aware carriers are usually open to price negotiation if you’re buying several phones for employees. LG recently announced the V30 will earn a special approval in a Google-led program following an upgrade to Android 8.1. The (Android 8.0 version of the phone is what is being reviewed here).

If you’re a medium-sized enterprise, this information may apply to you as well. The Google approval, known as “Android Enterprise Recommended”, is for decision-makers in your IT department. It seeks to make device deployment easier and more consistent, and allow for greater control over data security and various configurations.

It’s the show where a whopping $500,000 revitalization prize is awarded to one city, by Deluxe Corp. This month, Small Business Trends connected with Amanda Brinkman from the program to discuss its third season, which begins later this year with co-host Ty Pennington. We discuss Brinkman’s role at Deluxe, what businesses can learn by watching their past and upcoming content, and how they’re using Facebook Live.

Third Season of Small Business Revolution-Main Street

A creative visionary in marketing and media, Amanda Brinkman has innovated for brands like Reebok, BMW, Sony, Toro, Virgin Mobile and more. Her work on BMW Films kicked her career into overdrive. Brinkman currently works with Deluxe Corp. as chief brand and communications officer, and in 2015 she made a bet that an authentic program — branded as the Small Business Revolution championed by Deluxe — would garner more results than she could buy with traditional advertising.

The show, named “Small Business Revolution — Main Street”, chronicles the program’s impact on communities and countless lives. The winning city for the show’s new season was announced on Feb. 27, 2018 via Facebook. Content from the two previous seasons have gained 11x the reach and impressions of a traditional media buy with the same spend.

Brinkman is honored to serve on the boards of the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Make-A-Wish, the Children’s Theatre Company and the Women’s Business Development Center’s (WBDC) Chicago Board. She also passionately volunteers for an array of causes, including the Special Olympics, Feed My Starving Children, People Serving People, the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota, the Jeremiah Program and more. She’s also a member of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable. Engage with her on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @amandakbrinkman.

Small Business Trends: What is the Small Business Revolution all about and which city won Season 3?

Amanda Brinkman: The Small Business Revolution is a movement. We are creating a revolution across the country to celebrate small businesses and their critical impact on our economy and our communities. This year marks the third season of “Small Business Revolution – Main Street”, which annually awards one small town with a $500,000 revitalization for its Main Street and its small businesses. We received thousands of nominations from towns across America and spent the last couple of months visiting and researching the finalist. After naming five finalists and inviting the public to vote for their favorite, Alton, Illinois was named the winner.

Small Business Trends:How has Facebook Live been helpful even before the third season of ‘Small Business Revolution — Main Street’ begins?

Amanda Brinkman: Facebook Live has been an incredible tool for energizing our passionate Small Business Revolution audience and engaging with them in real time — especially at key points throughout the program. For example, when we visited 10 short-listed towns in January to determine our five finalists, we did a Facebook Live broadcast from each town with a local representative. It was an amazing way to shine a spotlight on all of the communities and share with our followers the amazing communities we were visiting. We’ve also used Facebook Live to make major announcements, such as the reveal of our five finalist towns for Season 3 and the inclusion of Ty Pennington as our new co-host. It’s fun — and effective — to have everyone learning the news simultaneously and weighing in with their comments.

Small Business Trends:Let’s hear a recap of what Deluxe is, for those who don’t know.

Amanda Brinkman:Deluxe was founded more than 100 years ago with a legacy in the check-printing space. Today, it is a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions, serving 4.4 million small business customers across the country. Deluxe provides small business services and products such as website development and hosting, email marketing, social media, search engine optimization and logo design — helping small businesses with marketing so they can focus on the aspects of their business that they love most.

Small Business Trends:When does the new season air? How does Ty Pennington fit into the show?

Amanda Brinkman: Season 3 will debut this fall on Hulu, YouTube and SmallBusinessRevolution.org. Seasons 1 and 2 are both on SmallBusinessRevolution.org where you can see what’s at stake for Season 3, and how small businesses in these inspiring communities have overcome challenges with help from Deluxe. We enlisted Ty as a co-host for Season 3 because of his proven track record of working on projects that help transform and improve lives, homes and communities. Now, he’s going to help us transform an entire community!

PayPal Here Card Readers

These new devices will enable the thousands of small businesses that rely on PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) to accept payments from their customers and clients. They allow those businesses and contractors to accept newer forms of payment and to take payments where they are without having to send an email invoice.

The “Chip and Swipe” reader is $24.99. The “Chip and Tap” reader is $59.99. Think of these as new mid-range alternatives to the hardware PayPal already sells — priced lower than the PayPal Chip Card Reader (the relatively large one with an entry keypad), but priced higher than the triangle-shaped PayPal Mobile Card Reader (the one you insert into a headphone jack).

Both are EMV-compliant and let small businesses accept magstripe swipe and chip card transactions anywhere. They’re smaller than a deck of cards and are available at Staples, with additional retailers to follow. You can also buy directly through PayPal’s site.

The more expensive of the two, the Chip and Tap reader, is available with a charging stand and will support payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and any other NFC-enabled device or card. Both work with the free PayPal Here app and pair with your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

Through the PayPal Here SDK (software developer kit) implementation, PayPal has partnered with mPOS (mobile point of service) leaders like Invoice2Go, Lavu, Touchpoint.io, and Vend to help businesses accept payments in a quicker, more convenient way. The SDK can be downloaded here.

]]>https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/02/paypal-here-card-readers.html/feed3Billy Mann Discusses Video Humor as a Tool for Marketinghttps://smallbiztrends.com/2018/01/using-humor-in-social-media-marketing.html
https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/01/using-humor-in-social-media-marketing.html#respondSun, 07 Jan 2018 23:00:22 +0000https://smallbiztrends.com/?p=479594Humor ranked as one of the highest-engagement content types when video genres were researched by BuzzSumo recently. And Edison Research found in its own independent research that audiences between 12 and 24 prefer Instagram (73 percent), Snapchat (79 percent) and Musical.ly (11 percent) — all platforms serving as potential places to post video content.

When research confirms what you knew, it could be smart to weigh the possibilities. Of the videos you’re creating to promote your business, how many are funny?

Using Humor in Social Media Marketing

In social media, funny videos have a strong chance of being reshared. Brian G. Peters, digital marketing strategist at Buffer, says, “Trouble is, it’s hard to create funny videos, but if you’re a funny person, you’re in luck because it’s a high-engagement video type.” Could comedy have ranked number one in BuzzSumo’s study if humor wasn’t so hard to create? And how much tougher is live comedy? Live or not, planned or not, comedy has always been one of the hardest nuts to crack.

Small Business Trends reached out to professional entertainer and social media personality Billy Mann to discuss the serious business of using humor in social media marketing.

Billy Mann is an actor, singer, voiceover talent, dancer, writer and all around entertainer. Add his background as a professional competitive half pipe skier and a degree in mechanical engineering, he claims his main goal with this versatile skill set is to positively impact the world by helping everyone smile. Acting in viral commercials and working with YouTube filmmakers, Mann has a broad reach (combined views and combined followers) and a deep understanding of the industry and how to interact with his audience. He says his “cheesy but charming” charisma on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Musical.ly, etc. is part of his influencer business mindset.

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Small Business Trends: I can only guess the business of comedy is actually more complex than meets the eye. What are the creative briefs like? What things have you learned during your time working with brands?

Billy Mann: Well put; the end result of a comedy story for a brand looks like sunshine and high fives, but it is sometimes a very complex process. The most important things I’ve learned while working with brands is to make sure the story is not just silly for the sake of silliness, but also tells a cohesive tale. Also you want to be sure that whatever you pitch, you make the brand the hero of the story. Whether they want explosive brand mentions, or more subtle pitches that don’t feel anything like ads or partnerships, companies love when they are made the victors of the creative. Also learning to collaborate on idea notes with clients so that we both get what we want has been a great learning curve. As often as possible, you want to be sure to keep your own voice and artistic integrity while meeting the requirements of the brand. That way everyone wins.

Small Business Trends:What’s an issue in your field that isn’t getting enough attention?

Billy Mann: One issue that I see in my field is a lack of fiscal respect. With this being said, I completely understand the notion of ROI and building a portfolio that would be worth a company investing any money into. However, far too often companies these days will expect a large amount of creative work — work that requires pre-planning and sometimes difficult execution — for little to no payment. Hopefully over time, brands will realize that if they go to a specific person for a certain stylization of story or creativity, that the time put into creating such a story is worth more than just a tag in a description. Exposure and compensation are two different things.

Small Business Trends:Are you asked to do live video or mostly the Stories format?

Billy Mann: More often than not, I have been asked to make either short or long storylines, because audiences love my quirky comedy with crazy situations and sound effects that cannot always be replicated via livestream. However, with my recent growth on live platforms, I’m sure the inclusion of livestreaming will become part of the package deal.

Small Business Trends:So you also travel internationally to work. Do clients brief you on what overseas cultures consider funny and not funny?

Billy Mann: That’s actually a great question. No, they never needed to brief me on a new country’s culture because my creative pitch for each country job would be pre-approved before I flew to do the partnership. I have also been keeping tabs on my reach on Snapchat and Instagram by asking each new commenter where they are from and keeping notes in my phone, so currently around 85 different countries enjoy my style of comedy. That means my creative pitches sometimes only need slight tweaking because the appeal of the comedy stylings is universally understood and appreciated.

Small Business Trends:Tell us something about yourself you don’t normally mention.

Billy Mann: In my spare time, I used to make jewelry for fun. Like earrings and bracelets and stuff out of colored metals rings that I would arrange into patterns.

Small Business Trends:Were you always funny? What’s your back story?

Billy Mann: I don’t know if I have always been funny, but I have definitely always been high energy. I grew up just north of Lake Tahoe in Truckee, California, where I started skiing when I was two years old. That became my profession, and I traveled as a competitive halfpipe skier.

I competed in World Cups until I unfortunately tore my knee at the Olympic Qualifiers in New Zealand in 2013. I was balancing skiing with a college education, so after surgery I went back to school full time to finish my degree in mechanical engineering. It was during this loss of competitive skiing that I had an existential crisis: ‘Without my skiing, what am I now!?’ Around this time, my brother had gotten his first job in the industry as a storyboard artist for a TV show on Nickelodeon, and it was then that I realized what I would do. I would work my butt off to help people smile, to help positively impact the world through entertainment and acting.

My brother gave me great advice: “Find what you want to do in life, and learn more about it than anyone.” That’s exactly what I started doing. I did standup comedy, took acting/singing/dancing lessons, learned anything I thought was inclusive in the ‘entertainment industry’. I then randomly met a famous YouTube filmmaker from Utah and we hit it off. I moved to Utah to work with him and other filmmakers in that area. Best decision of my life! I have been working hard to build my resume ever since so that I may better and better fulfill my dream of helping the world smile.

Small Business Trends:How should people get a hold of you?

Billy Mann: The great thing about social media and technology is that this question has so many answers! Anyone interested in getting in touch can email mannbilly@hotmail.com or send a snap or DM to my Snapchat or Instagram at mannbilly — that’s the name of my brand.

When asked about trusting governments in 2017, the majority of people surveyed in 28 major countries didn’t answer positively. Civilizations have been built on trust, but the survey (named the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer) paints a bleak picture. And according to the Pew Research Center, only 2 in 10 Americans have “a lot” of trust in news media. It’s hard to imagine things getting worse.

What can we look to? The Economist thinks it’s helpful if we think of blockchains as a “trust machine.”

In 2017, the everyday person came to associate blockchains with cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin), but that’s not the entire picture. On blockchains, encryption guarantees the trustworthiness of a transaction, whether that’s a Bitcoin transaction or some other type. Most importantly, you’re trusting multiple sources, along with more than one form of encryption.

This is very different than the current way of trusting one central body. We’ve come to accept flawed systems, even though many are vulnerable to breaches and other nightmares. Think of the Equifax fiasco around the summer of 2017. When you hear blockchain enthusiasts talk about “centralized systems”, they’re referring to the old systems people are growing tired of. Jeremy Epstein, Sprinklr‘s former marketing Vice President, says there’ll come a time when customers will demand the transparency and security made possible by blockchains’ goal of “decentralization.”

If blockchain goes mainstream, proponents believe customer experience would improve so much that we’ll see more innovation — and competition and disruption — leading to even better and better customer experience. And a key to that is a mass increase in trust. Even now there are startups experimenting with blockchain innovation, but most of it goes under reported or not given any media attention at all.

Will Blockchain Protect Democracy?

Small Business Trends interviewed Epstein because he’s written and spoken about blockchain from a marketing perspective. One takeaway from the interview: While “shiny new things” are usually a distraction and insignificant to the big picture, blockchains represent a seismic shift — they aren’t the latest shiny new distraction. Proponents say blockchains could have as much global impact as the advent of the world wide web.

Small Business Trends: How can blockchain “protect democracy” and privacy rights? Is it just because it’s decentralized? I’m sure I’m in the same boat with many small businesses who simply aren’t connecting the dots: ledgers, democracy — they seem strange to include in the same discussion.

Jeremy Epstein: I have spent my entire career as a marketer in the technology industry. I’m as big a technophile as you are going to find out there. At the same time, I understand the inherent dangers of the technology systems that currently sit at the center of our lives and the power they potentially have to limit civil liberties, freedom of speech and stifle innovation. That is not okay with me.

It’s been a challenging year for many Americans, but I still believe in things like democracy, freedom of speech, the right to privacy and civil liberties. That’s why I am so intensely focused on helping people understand that the arrival of blockchain or, better said, distributed ledger technology, is ultimately going to have a very positive impact on society by ensuring that many of these these values can be protected.

Beyond that, as a Type A personality, I like efficiency. The fact that blockchain has the potential to eliminate third-party intermediaries who are toll-taking middlemen is very, very appealing. I think this is partly why the first book I curated, “Blockchains in the Mainstream: When Will Everyone Else Know?” was received so well by people in the industry. In it we had blockchain leaders explain their visions of why this tech is important. It resonated.

Small Business Trends: At the end of 2017, it’s far from mainstream. Marketers and especially the everyday joe have lots to try to understand about blockchain, or is it more about practical apps versus understanding?

Jeremy Epstein: One lesson from business history is VHS-Betamax. The best technology doesn’t always win. Betamax is the classic example. The entrepreneurs who are building the next generation of technology are brilliant engineers. However, they aren’t marketers. In order for the decentralized future to get here faster, we have to build products people will use. I am very fortunate to work with top tier blockchain projects like OpenBazaar and Zcash among many others who are paving the way.

I’m a lifelong student of marketing. What we’ve seen over time is that, while the fundamentals of marketing don’t change over time, the how of marketing does change. TV changed the nature of reach. Internet made marketing faster and digital. Social made it two-way and mobile made it location independent. Blockchain will impact marketing, too. I wrote the “CMO Primer for the Blockchain World” which includes forewords by the CMO of Nasdaq and the CMO of Dun & Bradstreet. In the 70 pages, we cover topics like advertising, loyalty, brand and customer experience. I want to help marketers understand the massive change that is about to happen so they can prepare.

Small Business Trends: What kinds of companies do you help?

Jeremy Epstein: I work closely with start-ups who are inventing the business models of the future. OpenBazaar is a decentralized marketplace. Zcash gives people the right to protect their own privacy. Gladius allows people to re-sell their bandwidth and makes it cheaper for companies to avoid DDoS attacks, which are costly.

KickCity will lower customer acquisition costs for events. WishKnish is building community-driven marketplaces. Papyrus is seeking to eliminate the huge waste in digital advertising and Kudos will make it easier for people who participate in the sharing economy to have their hard-earned reputation move with them across various services.

I also speak at corporate events for Fortune 2000 companies who want to understand the “mind of the disruptor” in terms they can understand.

Small Business Trends: You were vice president of marketing at Sprinklr, from the time it was valued at $20 million and now it’s got a $1.8 billion valuation. But now you’re all-in on blockchain? They’re so different.

Jeremy Epstein: Sprinklr is an amazing company and still going gangbusters. I am proud of my time there and love the people and experiences. I am passionate and excited about helping new technologies get into the mainstream. With social media, that mission was accomplished. Once I got my head around decentralized technologies, I knew I had found my next calling.

Small Business Trends: Should small businesses, or anyone for that matter, be wary of crypto fans who say they have expertise? They’re all over Facebook and Twitter during bull market trends — It’s like an echo chamber, but between blockchain and crypto, the latter seems to have more bad actors.

Jeremy Epstein: Anyone in this industry who says he has figured it all out is a liar. It’s a huge paradigm shift and we’re all trying to get our heads around it. I blog five days a week (neverstopmarketing.com) with the sole purpose of engaging my thousands of subscribers with the things I am trying to understand. They offer their feedback and, together, we’ll figure it out.

It’s a fact: we love sharing on social media. The average time spent on social platforms stands at 135 minutes daily. But when it comes to work-related matters, we’re not as willing to share.

As artist Austin Kleon (author of “Show Your Work”) says, many of us are trained to guard our projects and to reveal them after completion, never before.

In psychology, positioning yourself the way you want to be seen is called self-presentation. Any TV commercial shows us that companies adopt this approach in branding. But a startup founder could stand to lose by not sharing his or her process — for example, valuable and free feedback from others might never be heard.

Small Business Trends connected with entrepreneur Chris Weiher to find out if there are benefits to watching projects in realtime.

Livestreaming Community for Creative Professionals

Weiher is the founder of WatchMeWork.com, a livestreaming community for creative professionals to cowork and share their process with one another. He is also the owner of CLEAVER Creative, a video production company serving Chicago-based businesses.

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Small Business Trends: Many startups begin from a personal need the founder had. Is that true for your startup?

Chris Weiher: Yes, I was used to working in an office where I could see other professionals and missed that when I began freelancing. I was learning Adobe Illustrator and frustrated that I just couldn’t walk into a room and ‘watch someone work’ in it.

You can get something different out of watching someone’s whole process as opposed to watching a tutorial. A tutorial can teach you specifics, but by watching someone’s process, you can learn things you would never even think to search for.

Small Business Trends: What worlds have opened up to you thanks to your users? Which disciplines are active on your platform, and which one is streamed the most?

Chris Weiher: I’m not an illustrator so it’s been interesting to see that art form be one of the most-streamed work. I think it’s taken off faster than other kinds of work as it’s so fun to watch. The most active disciplines are digital illustration, programming, 3D design and game design.

Small Business Trends: How has your push-to-talk feature made the UX better on WatchMeWork.com? And the backend tech of your platform is Ruby On Rails and Google Hangouts On Air? How did you become aware of Ruby On Rails? It’s not exactly a household name.

Chris Weiher: Push-to-talk allows users to talk instantly via voice rather than chat, or as opposed to having to use a third party app. I was made aware of Ruby On Rails through the Startup Weekend in Chicago and through my first developer who was a graduate of Dev Bootcamp in Chicago.

Small Business Trends: I’m a little shocked when I hear anyone say we might see businesses favoring livestreaming over pre-recorded video in the near future. Can you elaborate?

Chris Weiher: One thing that’s interesting about livestreaming is it’s actually a lot easier to do compared to creating a video. Yet people are a lot more afraid of it and nervous to try it. I think as more people try it, it’s possible that more people will become livestreamers than video-makers.

]]>https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/12/livestreaming-community-for-creative-professionals-watch-me-work.html/feed8Angel Offers Investors and Startups Advice from a Silicon Valley Titanhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2017/12/angel-book-review.html
https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/12/angel-book-review.html#respondSat, 02 Dec 2017 12:00:29 +0000https://smallbiztrends.com/?p=475992Angel investing is high-risk by nature, but investors don’t need to be reckless. They can be purposeful, or, if steered by the advice in Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups, methodical. If you’re a startup, there’s a right way to communicate with angel investors, and numerous ways to get rejected. At 272 pages (32 chapters) Angel gives plenty of tips on what a founder can first say to be taken seriously, and then to maximize relationships with angels. But the book’s focus is the angel investing side.

What is Angel About?

The first 25 chapters contain the right amount of the author’s personal journey, but mostly informs accredited investors on how they can get started in evaluating tech startups — hopefully ones with unicorn potential at the right stage. Angel also includes sections on blind spots that only a seasoned investor can point out, traits to look for in a high-potential founder, due diligence, investor updates, the downside of being an investor, and 127 other topics. Ways to spot impropriety, whether from founders or other investors, are mentioned throughout the book.

In chapter 26, it’s finally revealed that the book is also powerful for entrepreneurs looking to develop great relations with potential investors. In most instances, a founder can read the advice and simply flip the frame of reference.

Author Jason Calacanis has well over 100 angel investments to his name including Uber, Nimble CRM, Rapportive, and Tumblr. Rising from a C-minus student in Brooklyn to one of the most sought-after startup advisors in America, his 150 million dollar portfolio reflects wins, losses and missed opportunities. Living on the edge of technology and the future, Calacanis believes world problems won’t be solved by governments, but by entrepreneurs.

While it’s necessary to consider the risk factors inherent in an individual startup, the book emphasizes that new investors must analyze risk in relation to net worth. What can you realistically afford to lose? Angel contains some templates and hypothetical conversations. The raw writing style in the latter (and throughout the book) is straightforward. In the people stories, sometimes names are mentioned. Other times they’re left out. If you’re looking for Silicon Valley stories retold with colorful (but not vicious) accents, this book will satisfy. Calacanis isn’t shy about admitting he was banned from Y Combinator’s Demo Day, or that his communication style can be, in his own words, abrasive and combative. The writing can be snarky-with-a-purpose, or snarky-in-good-fun, like when it says startups who don’t seek angel or VC money have a name — they’re called small businesses. Prudes, take note: That’s a very safe example of the humor in “Angel”.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

A player of high stakes poker, Calacanis uses gambling phrases like “pocket rockets”, “ace of spades”, “floor”, and even calls investments “bets” with some frequency. This will be a plus for readers who feel at home in Vegas casinos, but it’s possibly ineffective or mysterious for people who aren’t into that scene. For me, I’m glad it wasn’t excessive. Calacanis believes it’s important to physically move to Silicon Valley to be in the thick of things, and if you want to reach the highest levels of angel success, it’s the only real way. While he’s the professional and likely right, several tips in Angel are tied to this one opinion. Just something to keep in mind.

Why Read Angel?

If you’re an accredited investor new to the world of angel investing, meeting startups through incubators, single-deal venture capital funds (angel syndicates) and the rest of this exciting world, Calacanis’s book is officially marketed to you. However, it also serves double duty, obvious from the way chapter 26 opens:

“If you’re a savvy founder who bought this book to understand how angel investors think, I salute you clever, sneaky little bastards. You’re one step ahead of the class, and you’ve stolen the next test from the teacher’s office …”

Angel is also available as an audio book through Audible, fully narrated by Calacanis. Annointed by Sequoia Capital into their scouting program as a young man, Calacanis was tasked with finding the next big thing. Now in his mid-forties, his investor DNA still craves the thrill of the hunt, but layered on top is the razor-sharp experience Calacanis has accumulated over the years as one of Silicon Valley’s legendary insiders.

If you’ve made attempts at live video, chances are you have a story about weak WiFi, no WiFi, limited cellular bandwidth, or other transmission headaches.

Yes, you might worry about how many viewers will watch, or stress out thinking your voice might crack and not recover, but imagine being ready to shine for the camera and deliver your best, only to be betrayed by uncooperative tech. As the saying goes: If it’s not one thing, it’s another!

In rocket science, it’s called takeoff. In the live video world, it’s known as the “first mile.” First mile issues can be notoriously frustrating, and not just technical ones. The first mile is when you ideally establish an audience bond before you lose their attention. To get a pristine first mile, big brands turn to reputable experts who specialize in live video. Small businesses can save time by shortlisting those B2B winners — but equally important is knowing which brands are buying what tech.

Ben Ratner is a multimedia content creator with nearly 10 years working in live television, media production, social media and live streaming production. He’s the video producer for “StarTalk Radio” with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Cellular Bonding for Live Video

Ratner always seems to have the timely skinny on the specific live video solutions favored by various brands. He also recently provided Small Business Trends with insight on an advanced technology that’s so helpful, it almost seems like magic: Cellular bonding.

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Small Business Trends: I’ve heard you say you think TriCaster is great. But now LiveU is your new favorite? Am I misunderstanding?

Ben Ratner: They are two completely different tools! TriCaster is an excellent multi-camera production system, and LiveU is a bonded cellular broadcasting service. The two can work together. A recent example of that is when I had to do a last minute Facebook Live stream for GirlStarter on TLC from a parking lot near Atlanta. I had power, but no hard-wire or wireless internet. I used the Tricaster to switch my cameras, run audio and add graphic elements, and I sent the output to a LiveU Solo. The one-touch broadcasting from the Solo was really convenient.Small Business Trends: What makes LiveU user-friendly? Is cellular bonding a game-changer? At first blush, cellular bonding sounds too good to be true.

Ben Ratner: I think the most user-friendly tool from LiveU is the LiveU Solo. I’ve been able to go into locations and have my live broadcast up and running in less than a minute — which would have been quite hard without the LiveU. Because it comes with cellular cards, you don’t need to rely on a location’s internet. Turn it on, plug in your camera, tell it where to stream, hit start, and you’re on the air.

Cellular bonding is a game-changer for a few reasons. For starters, you don’t need to rely on local internet access. You need certain minimum bandwidth allocations to stream HD video, so even if a location has internet, it may not be strong enough. By design, LiveU units (and other bonded cellular solutions) have enough cell phone cards to give you enough service to do the job. Also, with multiple cellular cards (and optional WiFi and Ethernet connections), if you lose one card, the rest continue to seamlessly broadcast. LiveU units come with multiple cards from multiple service providers, so if one service is having a hard time, the other ones pick up the slack.

Small Business Trends:So there are fewer than two dozen TriCaster-certified operators in this region (NY-NJ-CT), you being one of them. How has that worked out?

Ratner: Being a Tricaster Certified Operator has certainly been helpful! It puts me on the Newtek directory of certified operators, so people know to come to people like me first when they are looking for operators. It’s helped clients like Vevo, All Mobile Video and Major League Soccer have more trust in me.

Small Business Trends:What other live video tips can businesses act on right now? And what’s the best way to reach you?

Ben Ratner:Vidpresso is the software I’m most excited about right now. It lets you add dynamic and social graphics to live streams. It also lets you bring on multiple video sources from remote computers. It’s a really solid way to spice up your broadcasts. BuzzFeed and NBC News are two sites that use it extensively, among others. Check it out! Best way to get in contact with me is via Twitter @BenMakesTV.

The team at Telescope.tv might be small in size, but the interactive experiences they deliver are globally scalable. As a social and video solutions specialist for Fortune 500 brands such as CNN, FOX News, the NBA, Vans, Twitter and Facebook, Telescope has a client list any small business would envy — including all the case studies to underscore their hard-earned reputation.

Small Business Trends contacted Telescope’s CEO, Jason George, to find out what makes them unique and so trusted.

Behind the Big Shows: A Small, Skilled Team

For more than 20 years, Jason George has been a pioneer in both the social and engaged TV spaces. Partnerships with Facebook, Twitter and others have made Telescope the authority on the tech that allows live shows and news bureaus to offer engaged social video and other types of audience interaction.

TV fans now feel closer to their favorite series like NBC’s “The Voice,” and “America’s Got Talent”, the FOX classic “American Idol”, as well as major hits on CBS, ABC, Food Network, HGTV, SyFy, Bravo and Telemundo. Telescope’s Connect Live platform powers viewer engagement experiences for NASCAR, Major League Soccer and the NHL. Broadcasts made possible through “Live Studio” (Telescope’s video streaming platform) have led to two Emmy Award nominations including “Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media within an Unscripted Program – 2017”.

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Small Business Trends: What does Telescope do? When did you launch?

Jason George: Telescope makes traditionally one-way communication platforms into a two-way conversation with your audience. We don’t really care if that consumption is happening via a broadcast medium or an OTT platform like Facebook. Our role at Telescope is the same — to turn that into a participative experience where the audience responses are somehow represented within the experience. We’ve been around for 15 years and counting.

We’re pretty close to the Facebook Media Solutions team and when Messenger APIs were opened to third parties, we created a real-time voting product that’s been utilized on a number of campaigns including the 2016 MTV VMAs, and CNN’s “Heroes” program. It’s more of a “second screen” solution allowing our clients to offer an interactive channel via Facebook Messenger alongside their content. The Facebook Live streaming API is a separate initiative to drive quality live content into the Facebook platform. We have a constant lifecycle of innovating with the major platforms, whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google or even iTunes voting.

Small Business Trends: Live interaction adds a lot of “life” to the content. It sounds like engagement is Telescope’s main focus?

Jason George: We have different products that broadly fall into two categories: engagement tools which motivate audiences to participate and take action. Examples are voting, commenting, uploading a picture or video, sharing. We integrate with the social networks to publish that experience into their digital application and, where available, we also integrate their APIs to pull publicly available UGC, filter and moderate that user-generated content via our moderation tool and publish it either to the social network or into a customer’s own web site or mobile application. Our fan feed product is one example.

Secondly we have a software product called Live Studio which is a full end-to-end management tool for live streaming to social networks. It’s really focused on delivering quality live video content, combined with graphics and the audience engagement tools I mentioned.

Just under half of live video views on Facebook come to people’s news feeds even if that person did not make an appointment to view that content. He or she can see a video if it was surfaced via the Facebook algorithm. Either it was meta-tagged with one of their interests or follows, one of their friends commented, shared or liked it, etc. When you use Telescope live streaming, you get maximized “social hooks” to drive discovery of your content. Also: Monetization of content and retargeting fans and customers are areas we can help with. We also offer voting and polling directly within FB Live streams, maintaining that native experience. Methods like Twitter voting aren’t the same as that, of course.Small Business Trends: What are some major moments in your company’s history that you’ll never forget?

Jason George: We’ve been involved in several Guinness World Records for most votes in a single night with “American Idol.” Those have definitely got the adrenaline going at times, just making sure all our systems could perform under the weight of that volume as well as getting all the votes tabulated and verified in time to get the producers the results to produce the next day’s Finale. There wasn’t much sleep on a few of those nights!

The NBA Sprite Slam Dunk SMS program which ran for several years until 2015 was also pretty challenging in terms of technology innovation, as was “The Voice’s” Twitter Save which was a real-time vote with a 5-minute window at the end of their Tuesday results show. Never been done before — and in one show there was a difference of, I think, two votes out of thousands and thousands. Like the Slam Dunk, we have about 10-15 seconds to verify the result and give it to producers so the heart’s pumping on that one!

More recently, the One Love Manchester concert has been a highlight for sure; not just because we were able to deliver something technologically demanding and complex. I’m from the UK, grew up close to Manchester and lived there for a time so from a personal perspective it really hit home. I was pretty touched and proud that we were able to play some small part in an event which will hopefully bring a bit of hope and make a small difference to those people caught up in a terrible tragedy.

Small Business Trends: Thank you for facilitating the donation process for that important event. Who can hire Telescope to set up donations through Facebook?

Jason George: The charity must be one that is officially recognized by Facebook.

In the summer of 2016, Facebook announced the “Stories” functionality for Instagram. Social media marketers quickly pegged Instagram Stories as a “clone” of Snapchat’s core feature. Facebook has since ramped up with even more clones for Messenger (Messenger Day), WhatsApp (WhatsApp Status) and Facebook proper (Facebook Stories). According to Business Insider, Mark Zuckerberg needs only 1 out of every 200 users of any of his platforms to prefer his clones over Snapchat in order to dominate in the long run.

Insights Into the Power of Instagram

Small Business Trends connected with Chris Gronkowski, a former NFL player and Instagram user, to get his opinion on the different Instagram options — including Instagram Live. He also shared his thoughts on life as a small business owner.

Gronkowski is a former NFL fullback who played for the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts. Gronkowski is the middle one of five Gronkowski brothers, four of whom have played in the NFL. His brothers Rob Gronkowski and Glenn Gronkowski are currently New England Patriots with Super Bowl rings.

Their father Gordon Gronkowski opened his own retail fitness store 26 years ago. Today it’s the fourth largest seller of specialty fitness equipment in the US. After Gronkowski’s NFL career ended, he followed his dad’s entrepreneurial footsteps and started two different businesses generating more revenue than his NFL earnings. One of the businesses, Everything Decorated, specializes in engraved gifts for all occasions. In 2016, Gronkowski introduced a kitchen-grade stainless steel insulated shaker bottle, the Ice Shaker. He uses Instagram Stories and says he will give Instagram Live a try.

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Small Business Trends:Do you have a preference for Instagram Stories over Instagram Live? I’ve noticed tons more Stories than Live. Do you get product feedback through viewer comments?

Gronkowski: I haven’t used Instagram Live yet as I am pretty new to Instagram. I am thinking I’ll go live tomorrow just to try it out and see the response. I am trying to think of a good idea to go live with. I think going live is a little harder than Stories because you can’t redo it, so if you say the wrong thing you can’t just delete it and post a new Story. I love getting feedback and comments from our customers. Most of the comments are very encouraging, and if there’s a customer unhappy with our product, we like to know why and we use their feedback to make ourselves a better company.

Small Business Trends:Were you on HSN (Home Shopping Network)? How was that experience? It looks like the Ice Shaker has enough square inches for partner branding.

Gronkowski: I did go live on HSN, but it was actually for a product my brother was partnering with called the Gronk Ball. It is a Bluetooth speaker inside a water-resistant foam football. HSN was a great experience. It’s a very impressive setup and operation. I have not partnered up with any companies yet for the Ice Shaker. The engravings are just requested by the customers.

Small Business Trends:Of the topics you talk about on Instagram Stories, which ones lead to the most sales? Are you extra careful when you discuss workout routines and nutrition?

Gronkowski: I feel that weightlifting content leads to more of our sales. Growing up in a family of five boys and being the shortest, I had to be a beast in the weight room. I started lifting weights around 14 years old and was able to set a lot of high school lifting records. I believed I was benching 365 pounds coming out of high school at 6’2” 225 pounds. Most of my Instagram has to do with weightlifting, but I also like posting some of the new supplements or protein cookies and bars that I enjoy. I’m not a nutritionist. I’m not a personal trainer — I pride myself as being a motivator — so I enjoy sharing the workouts and food I eat, but I am not able to provide workouts or nutritional advice.

Small Business Trends:Which of your businesses came first? Everything Decorated or Ice Shaker?

Gronkowski: When I was playing in the NFL, I ended up playing for four different teams in four years. My wife Brittany was tired of trying to find a new job every time we moved, so she wanted to do something from home.

She started hand-painting wine glasses and realized there was a huge market for personalized gifts. Once I saw the demand, I encouraged her to find a way to scale the company. When my NFL career ended, I was able to help her scale and we invested in industrial grade machines to help us take the company to the next level. After about a year, we grew too large for our house and moved into a storefront in 2015. Although I was a big part of it, Everything Decorated was my wife’s passion and in the back of my mind I wanted to stay involved in fitness and sports.
I workout almost every day, and in the summer of 2016, I noticed something in the 100 degree Texas heat. By the time I got to the gym, my water in my plastic shaker bottle was warm with an awful taste in it. So I went on the hunt for an insulated shaker bottle. After searching everywhere and not finding one insulated shaker bottle, I decided to make the best shaker bottle I possibly could.

By finding a solution to the problems of the old plastic shaker bottles while keeping the good features like the tapered shape, I was able to create what I believe is the best shaker bottle on the market. It’s become a top-rated shaker bottle on Amazon. I focused on what I didn’t like about the plastic shakers and what I loved about them. One thing I don’t like about the plastic bottles: They absorb odor and you couldn’t get the smell out if you forgot to clean out your protein shake from the day before. To solve this problem, I made the Ice Shaker with an 18/8 kitchen grade stainless steel bottle. It will not absorb odor. Next, it drove me crazy that the plastic shakers had absolutely no insulation causing my water to be lukewarm in a short period of time, all while condensation would build up and get on my car’s cup holder, my furniture, my hands. To fix this mess, my bottle is constructed with a double wall and is vacuum insulated. This allows the Ice Shaker to hold ice for over 30 hours in a 75 degree room without the bottle sweating because the cold inside doesn’t transfer to the outside.